Category Archives: 2019

PIP Review 2019

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Creech Party in the Park is over for another year – we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.  Please  help us improve the event by giving us your feedback on both the day and night events.

Hundreds of photos of the day and night are available on our Facebook page.

Daytime

The sun was shining, but we luckily had a bit of cloud too at times to keep us all from melting.  We estimate we had around 1500-1800 people of all ages enjoying the daytime event.

Skintight Samba started the event off with a great upbeat performance that brought the festival atmosphere alive – and the kids loved joining in playing some of the instruments.

Well done to everyone who joined in the Clubbercise and Bounce & Burn demos in the central arena – it could not have been easy in that heat!  The Tae Kwon Do team also put on a fabulous display.

The Creech Bake-Off Competition, this year organised by the Creech Flower & Produce Show, had some fantastic entries, which not only looked amazing, but tasted great too.  Huge thanks to Heathfield Hair & Beauty and Woodcraft by JoMo for donating the prizes for the winners.

We had a great selection of stalls selling a range of goods, raising money for charities, promoting their groups and of course selling delicious food and drink. A special thank you to the Rage Against Rubbish crew who very kindly picked up litter around the field – much appreciated.

The Egg Toss was a messy but entertaining event as usual and the Tug of War was a huge success – despite the rope breaking when the organisers were being challenged!

Big thank you to Cllr David Fothergill for once again being our brilliant compere.

Interval

The volunteer team, including our “minion” offspring helpers,  had a very short window to get the field ready for the evening but did a fantastic job. They emptied bins, cleared up rubbish, cleaned toilets, put away hay bales, cleared away table and chairs, set-up the stage and set-up bar ready for the eager crowd at the gates.

AfterDark

The sun was still shining when the fabulous Dusk Brothers took to the stage to warm the crowd up for the evening with some great original music.

The bar was well stocked with chilled drinks and new this year was a gin bar with lots of speciality brands and we even had the goldfish bowl plastic glasses for the gin to go in!

Next up on stage came the Pygmy Chimps playing some classic covers to the crowd who were beginning to venture on to the dance floor.

The Haus Band were the final act on stage and played to a packed dance floor for their whole set.  The crowd loved them and we were particularly touched when they dedicated a song to our dear David Knight while the crowd waved their phones in the air.

A light shower towards the end of the night didn’t dampen the atmosphere and we’re sure the 2200 strong crowd all had a blast.

The Raffle

We had some amazing prizes this year, and the raffle tickets were on sale both night and day.  All proceeds will be donated to the Stroke Association in honour of David Knight. We raised an amazing £1160 – so thank you to everyone who donated prizes and everyone who bought a ticket.

Thank you

This event is truly a group effort and would not go ahead without the commitment of a small number of community minded people.  So thank you to EVERYONE that helps out in any way at all.

Our committee and volunteers

Adrian Birch, Corinne Giles, Simon & Karen Hutchings, Steve & Tina Greenhalgh, Clare Sampson, Jo Morrison, Mina Guest, Charlie Cudlip, Dee Finch, Colin, Bev Janes, Nigel Cridge, Ben Giles, Neil Davidson, our minions and their parents, Sara Tucker, Jane Birch, our clean-up crew and all our friends and family who support us.

Our Photographers

Thank you to Andrew Finch, Phoenix Photographers and Tara Davey for the fabulous pictures from both the day and evening events.

Our Sponsors, supporterss and helpers

A special thanks to Keith Bennett at Otter Brewery for all the help this year.

Schedule 2019

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Make sure you don’t miss a thing at this year’s event – check out our schedule:

12:00 – Daytime event starts

12:00 – Welcome to the event – intro in the main arena

12:00-13:00 – Bring your Bake-Off entries to the main tent before 13:00

12:15 – Skintight Samba will get the event started with an upbeat demonstration and audience participation in the central arena.

12:45 – Bounce and Burn demo in the central arena

13:00-14:00 – Bake Off judging in the main tent

13:15 – Clubbercise demo in the central arena

13:45 – Skintight Samba are back for a second demonstration

14:15 – Tug of War (sign your team up on the flip charts) and Egg Toss in the central arena

15:00 – Prize winners presentation – Bake-Off, Tug of War, Egg Toss

15:15 – Tae Kwon Do demo in the central arena

16:00 – Day event finishes

16:30-18:30 – MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC NEED TO LEAVE SITE.  FIELD NEEDS TO BE CLEARED AND SET-UP FOR EVENING TICKETED EVENT

18:30 – AfterDark gates open

19:15 – Dusk Brothers

20:25 – Pygmy Chimps

22:15 – Haus Band

23:30 – Bar shuts

23:45 – AfterDark event  finishes

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Raffle 2019

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We are very lucky to have some fabulous prizes for the raffle this year.  You’ll be able to buy your tickets in the daytime and evening on Saturday.

Drawing the raffle – we will draw the raffle in a live video on Facebook on the Sunday after the event.  The tickets have a space for you to put your name/number, so as long as we can read your writing we’ll be able to contact you!

Charity – this year ALL the proceeds from the raffle will be going to the Stroke Association.  This charity has been chosen by Mandy Knight, the widow of one of our key team members, David Knight, who we sadly lost earlier this year.

2019 RAFFLE PRIZE prizes

Thank you so much to all the generous locals and businesses that donated prizes.

Top Prize

  • Weekend away in Bath
  • Champagne
  • Men’s hair bundle
  • Ladies hair bundle

TECH & PAMPER BUNDLE

  • Tablet
  • Tablet Charger
  • Hair product Bundle
  • Styling product Bundle

“For Him” Bundle

  • Boiler Service
  • Wireless Speaker
  • Site radio
  • Drill Hammer
  • Men’s hair product bundle

“For Him” – Days out Bundle

  • Tickets to Taunton Racecourse
  • Pub meal voucher
  • Canal boating activity voucher

“For Her” – Pamper Bundle

  • Massage voucher
  • Smellies
  • Luxury cut & style hair voucher
  • Facial voucher
  • Hand treatment
  • Hair product bundle

“For Her” – Days out bundle

  • Pub meal voucher
  • Canal boating activity voucher
  • 2 tickets to Taunton Racecourse

Family Bundle

  • Echo Dot
  • Hand made wooden mirror
  • Wooden art board
  • You Fit month membership
  • Kids book
  • Canal boating activity voucher
  • Unicorn mug
  • BBQ pack
  • Boiler service
  • Hair products
  • Handmade Teddy Bear

Family Pamper  & DAYS OUT Bundle

  • Luxury cut & style hair voucher
  • Facial voucher
  • Men’s hair product bundle
  • Hair product bundle
  • Styling products bundle
  • Hairdryer
  • Family Ticket to Taunton Races
  • Puxton Park Tickets

Picnic Bundle

  • Picnic Hamper Set
  • BBQ pack
  • Prosecco
  • Canal boating activity voucher
  • Luxury Biscuits

Booze Bundle

  • Gin
  • Champagne
  • Beer
  • Wine book and stopper
  • Wooden storage crate

TECH & PAMPER BUNDLE

  • Echo
  • Hair product Bundle
  • Styling product Bundle

Donations from:

Huge thanks to everyone that has donated prizes for this raffle

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Creech Bake Off 2019

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The Creech Bake-Off is happening again in 2019 for the 4th time.  The baking competition is kindly being organised this year by the Creech St Michael Flower and Produce Show.

Theme

This year the theme is a WELL KNOWN BOOK OR FILM – so lots and lots of options!

Maybe a Thomas The Tank Engine sponge cake, or a Chocolate Chewbacca, or a Strawberry Spiderman – the only limit is your imagination!

Categories

There are three categories to take part in:

  1. Adults
  2. Young People (ages 11-17)
  3. Children (aged 10 and under)

Judging

The cakes will be judged on both look and flavour by member of the Flower Show committee.  Spectators are also able to judge their favourites by putting a sticker next to the cakes.

How to enter

Please bring your cakes to the Bake-Off Tent on the day between 12:00-13:00, judging will take place at 14:30 and prizes given out shortly afterwards.

Gallery

Take a look at some entries from previous years.  More images available in our FaceBook Bake-Off Album.

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Notes from Planning Meeting – 6th June 2019

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With less than a month to go til this year’s Party in the Park, the committee had lots to discuss at their recent meeting.

Present:  Adrian, Steve, Simon, Jo, Colin, Charlie, Dee, Nigel, Clare

Site preparation: we are arranging for the grass to be cut prior to the event and improved fencing to make the site more secure. Charlie is building us steps to access the stage.

Site layout:  much discussion took place on where to put the toilets! We have more loos this year for both men and women and as such may have to re-think where they are located.  We also have bigger inflatables which need careful consideration due to the logistics of power cables.  The team decided to meet up at the field later in the month to discuss further. We discussed lighting and confirmed it will be improved for the end of the evening to help people navigate the field when they leave.

Site security:  sadly, we had some trouble last year with teens.  Our professional security team will be patrolling the gate and site to ensure no under-age drinking takes place.  Under age drinkers will be escorted off site along with their appropriate adult. Alcohol not purchased on site will be confiscated. The team are volunteers organising an event for the whole community and should not have to put up with abuse from anyone of any age.  We will have a zero-tolerance policy on drunken or abusive behaviour towards both our volunteers and security team and offenders will be removed from site.

Posters:  posters have been printed and distributed throughout the team to put up around the village and local areas. (see below if you can help with posters)

Rubbish and recycling: we are improving the ability to sort out rubbish on the day. Our clean up volunteers had quite the job last year on the Sunday attempting to separate the landfill waste form the recycling.  It was a hard messy job that required strong marigolds! We’re hoping to improve the sorting this year with better signage on the bins and lids on some which will only be for certain recycling eg cans/bottles.

Weather:  we spent far too much time discussing the weather!  The event WILL take place whatever the weather, but obviously contingency plans need to be in place if the worst happens.  We will be monitoring the weather forecast closely and if heavy rain looks likely then we will put plans in place to protect the stage and other electrics fully.

Raffle:  we have some absolutely amazing prizes for the raffle this year which we will be advertising soon.  We will be selling tickets throughout the day and nighttime event and the raffle will be drawn the following day.  All proceeds from the raffle will be split between the stroke ward at Musgrove Hospital and another charity of Mandy Knight’s choosing to honour her late husband David Knight, who was a key member of the PIP team.

Tickets:  Teen tickets are very nearly sold out, and child tickets are running low.  Plenty of adult tickets are still available.  Tickets can be purchased at Creech School Fair of Friday 14th June 3.45-5.30pm or see the tickets page.

How can YOU help?

We always need volunteers for jobs big and small in the run up to the event, on the day, and following the event.  If you can help – for as much or as little as you are able – we would love to hear from you.  Email us, message us on Facebook or speak to one of the team about how you can get involved.  We currently need help with:

  1. Poster distribution – are you able to put up a poster at your work or a notice board near you?  Posters available to download and print or you can contact us to request a paper copy.
  2. Friday  – we need strong bodies on the day before the event for lots of manual jobs at the field.  Please let us know if you can help.
  3. Saturday clean-up – bins need to be emptied, toilets need to checked/cleaned, field needs to be setup for evening, rubbish cleared from field.
  4. Sunday clean-up – many hands make light work!  If you can help clear the site the next morning please just turn up and dig in.
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Daytime Activity Tokens

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Party in the Park is now only 6 weeks away and behind the scenes the team are working to get the site ready to put on another fantastic event.

We’re doing things a little differently this year and using tokens for rides and activities instead of cash.  You’ll be able to buy your tokens on the day for £1 each from the soft drinks bar at the pavilion.  All rides/activities will cost ONE TOKEN.  However you can also save yourself some money by buying the token vouchers ahead of time and get the following discount:

  • 5 x tokens = £4 (20% discount)
  • 15 x tokens = £10 (33% discount)

Vouchers are available to purchase from:

  • All ticket sellers (see the ticket page for full details)
  • Creech School Fair on 14 June 2019 15.45-17.45.

Activities you will need tokens for

Tap the App Game

Hold your nerve and take on the giant smart phone steady hand game. The aim of the game is to remove all the pieces (apps) from the game board using the electromagnetic wand. Tap the App one at a time and keep a steady hand, if you touch the sides the alarm will sound and the app will fall back into the game board.

Strike a Light Game

Speed, accuracy, and head-to-head competition make this high energy game a true winner. Who has the fastest hands in Creech?

Racing Simulator (2 player)

The racing simulators features a link up system allowing drivers to race on the simulator head to head with independent screen views. The system features a choice of cars and courses is available including both track and off road courses in a variety of car types.

Dance Off Machine

Follow the steps on screen to learn the routines and score big points. Challenge friends and family to see who has the best moves.

Obstacle Course

70ft bouncy assault course.

Rodeo Sheep Ride

Like a bucking broncho – except it’s a sheep!

Air Hockey Table

Classic arcade game for two players.

Inflatable Slide

Giant inflatable slide – fun for all ages.

Free Activities and games

  • Family games – giant jenga, giant connect 4, limbo set,
  • Circus Skills with Mr Bumble
  • Balloon modelling with Mr Bumble
  • Egg Toss
  • Tug of War
  • Reptile handling

See our daytime page for full details of displays, demos and stalls that will also be around during the day.

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Creech Community Clean Up Day – Saturday 11th May 2019

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To celebrate Somerset Day on 11th May, we hosted our 2nd community spring clean of the village and were absolutely blown away by the fantastic turn out of people.

Over 100 adults and children of all ages came together to litter pick around the village and deal with overgrown bushes and weeds. One of our volunteers even bravely tethered himself to a rope enabling him to get up close to the canal and retrieve the large quantities of rubbish on its bank (thank you Charlie!) . The two hours of sprucing up the village yielded random finds such as tyres, huge picture frames and even a house phone!

Joining in the volunteering were several Creech Parish Councillors, Somerset County Councillor David Fothergill and local Rev Rebecca Harris.

Following the clean up, the volunteers were treated to a free BBQ cooked by Adrian and Steve and chips from Layz Ricks.   Family games including giant connect 4, rounders and limbo were available for all to use and the kids had a fab time playing in the park in the sunshine.

The organising committee said:

“We are really pleased that Creech Party in the Park continues to be a successful event which allows us to put proceeds back into the village. We were delighted that so many children helped with the clean up day as it’s fantastic to see the different generations coming together”

In addition to organising the clean-up, Creech Party in the Park has also donated funds to the local primary school, pre-school and Baptist church for children’s clubs. It has provided park benches, phone box refurbishment, defib and funded OAP lunches. It has also funded 20 trees to be planted as part of the Somerset Wood Memorial Project.

Huge thanks to Dee for organising this great community event.

In Memoriam – David Knight

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David Knight
David Knight

The team were deeply saddened to lose one of our team earlier this month.

David Knight passed away on 16th February following a short illness.

Dave had been part of the PIP organising committee since 2014 and his passing will leave a huge hole in our team and he will be deeply missed by everyone.

Dave was a key member of the team, who helped with all aspects of the event.  He was at all the planning meetings throughout the year without fail and was responsible for the bands, stage, plant hire, bar stock collection, site plan and layout of the field.  He was always on hand with his van for any deliveries in the run up to the event and his business contacts were invaluable for not just services but also sponsorship. 

On the day of the event Dave would be on site from early in the morning till late at night getting stuck in with all the jobs, big or small. Whether it was litter picking, serving at the bar or moving hay bales Dave was happy to get involved in it all.  We were particularly impressed with his Zumba demo skills one year!

The PIP team had this to say about Dave:

 “It was an absolute pleasure to work with David and he will genuinely be missed by us all.  I will always picture him wearing a yellow T-shirt, a big smile and holding a glass of red! He was a lovely friendly man and it was a privilege to call him a friend” – Jo

 “I will really miss a very dear friend in Dave. Dave’s dedication and enthusiasm to PIP was second to none and the PIP team are going to make sure that 2019 is one to remember in his honour. The Creech Parish has lost a key member of the community, it is a very sad time.” – Adrian

“David was a pleasure to work alongside on the PIP committee in the few years I knew him.   His incredibly positive, ‘can do’ attitude, great sense of humour and above all his willingness to get involved in any way necessary to get the million ‘things’ done behind the scenes to create a hugely successful and memorable community occasion, made him an invaluable team member.  What a loss to our team and our community. He will be missed greatly by us all” – Bev

“David always had a smile on his face and a calm head, even when things were not going completely to plan…  He did so much for our community and in particular Ham.  I feel very proud to have called him a friend and colleague and his rum punch was legendary x” – Clare

“David will be genuinely missed. He was a pleasure to work with at PIP and was always cheerful, no matter what was going on!” – Dee

“Working with David was always a pleasure; his reassuring smile was a comfort especially if things were not going as hoped.  I feel privileged to have known and worked alongside him at PIP, as a Parish councillor and during other community events.  I’m so glad our paths crossed, and I’ve had the pleasure of calling David my friend.  He will always be in our hearts.” – Mina

In addition to being a key member of PIP Dave also organised trips for the Ham Clan, ran his own successful business, and was a member of Creech St Michael Parish Council for several years. 

Our thoughts are with David’s wife Mandy and his family at this heart-breaking time.

Free Fish & Chip Lunch

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On Friday 18th January 2019 Creech Party in the Park (PIP) provided a free fish and chip lunch for a group of over 60s.

pip-lunch

Around 120 locals were treated to a lunch of fish, sausage or veggie burger courtesy of PIP.

The event was held in the village hall, and Layz Ricks provided the delicious main course. Pudding was a selection of shop bought delights in addition to a lovely home made gluten free cheesecake (thank you Tina!).

layz-ricks

Creech St Michael Primary School sent along six school ambassadors to help serve up the food, accompanied by Mrs Perham and the Headteacher Mrs McCarthy. The children did a fantastic job of shuttling the food between the mobile van and the hall and serving up mushy peas, but their favourite job was wheeling round the dessert trolly full of tasty treats! They were treated to lunch and cake afterwards for all their hard work.

Following lunch and pudding there was time for a quick cuppa and a biscuit before the bingo started. Several games were played, with boxes of chocolates given out as prizes. We were once again joined by Somerset County Council leader Cllr David Fothergill who performed outstandingly as the bingo caller, assisted by PIP organiser Clare.

A BBC film crew were also in attendance at the event, filming Cllr Fothergill for an upcoming episode of Panorama about Social Care. They interviewed some of the locals too so you may see some familiar faces on TV soon!

Although not quite up to the BBC standards, we also had our own roving reporters on hand in the form Andrew and Jo who did a fab job of capturing the day in pictures and video.

Behind the scenes Gill, Karen, Tina and Renee were hard at work in the kitchen washing up. Although we didn’t see them much – we very much appreciate them keeping the mountain of plates under control!

The whole event was funded by the proceeds of PIP. As a non-profit event we aim to support good causes in the local area every year. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for groups that could benefit from PIP funds.

This lunch, and indeed Creech Party in the Park would not be possible without the invaluable help of volunteers, who give up so much of their time. A huge thank you goes to: Adrian, Andrew, Charlie, Clare, Colin, Corinne, David Fothergill, Gemma, Gill, Jo, Karen, Mina, Nigel, Renee, schoolchildren, Simon, Steve and Tina.